Maslow 4 feature request

Technical Details
1

it is not a good idea to assume that the center of the anchors is the center of the workpiece, so some way of defining where 0,0 is is a good idea

I think it would be useful to have a few variations

first off, the point determined via these methods should not have to be 0,0, it just needs to be at a known x,y position (so it could be off the edge of the normal work area

  1. drive to center and hit a button to say ’ I’m at the known point’ (similar to the ‘set home here’ on the current maslow)
  2. drive up the top, right, bottom, left and say ‘this is the edge of a box centered on the center of the workpiece’
  3. touch based versions of #2
    3a. move up until there is a touch, back off slightly, move right until there is a touch, back off slightly, move down until there is a touch, back off slightly, move left until there is a touch

this could be done with a frame of aluminum around the workpiece with tape around the sled and you are moving to touch

it could also be done with aluminum tape around the inside of the sled opening and a pin in the frame/workpiece

it could also be done with a ring mounted in the router instead of tape inside the sled opening and assuming that the sled opening in concentric with the bit.

3b. move up until there is a touch, raise the bit and move up a distance, lower the bit and move down until there is a touch, raise the bit and move to the midpoint between the two touch points, move left a distance, lower the bit and move right until there is a touch, raise the bit, move right a distance, lower the bit and move left until there is a touch, raise the bit and move to the midpoint between these two touches and you are at the center

This could be done with a carriage bolt in the router touching against one in the frame/workpiece

(note, having these as available subroutines to find a point will be useful for other things, including the skew reference points in the other request I just posted)

also, instead of making this coordinate system change permanent and global like the current ‘set home’ button, please consider implementing the standard gcodes for defining coordinate systems CNC Coordinate Systems: G54-G59, G10, G54.1, & G52 G10, G52, G53, G54-59, G92 (and possibly even g54.1)

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2

I think that at least some of those standard gcodes are already supported since GRBL supports them and Maslow4 is running GRBL.

For the other options I think that option #1 is already supported and for option #2 there is no constraint on where the “bounding box” of the workpiece is. You are free to cut anywhere that you would like. We draw a 4x8 box on one of the views in the preview window just to show roughly where a sheet of plywood would fit, but maybe we should rethink how that works. The rectangle you see on the software is just on the screen, it won’t limit you ability to cut anywhere that you want.

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one use case I am thinking of is a vertical maslow where you offset the
workpiece towards the bottom because gravity helps move the sled down, so you
can have a wider angle between the bottom belts and still move down than you can
have between the top belts and move up

I think that at least some of those standard gcodes are already supported since GRBL supports them and Maslow4 is running GRBL.

ahh, I forgot that.

For the other options I think that option #1 is already supported and for
option #2 there is no constraint on where the “bounding box” of the workpiece
is. You are free to cut anywhere that you would like. We draw a 4x8 box on one
of the views in the preview window just to show roughly where a sheet of
plywood would fit, but maybe we should rethink how that works. The rectangle
you see on the software is just on the screen, it won’t limit you ability to
cut anywhere that you want.

I wasn’t thinking as much of the bounding box on the screen as just being able
to set home to the center of your workpiece, wherever it is.

yes, centering a 4x8 sheet is one use case, but dealing with smaller pieces as
well

David Lang

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Totally, that is a great point. As it stands you are free to define the center of your sheet at any location, but I think that we could work on conveying that information better visually to the user. They way it is built at the moment the bounding box of the sheet of plywood as displayed on the user interface might not line up with reality.